


Magic Words

by mrs_d



Series: dS Snippets [10]
Category: due South
Genre: Community: ds_snippets | dsc6dsnippets, M/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5745991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_d/pseuds/mrs_d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All those years we spent in Chicago, Fraser would go on and on about <i>community</i>, and all I could hear was <i>hocus-pocus</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magic Words

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [ds_snippets](http://ds-snippets.livejournal.com/). Prompts were "community" and "ember."

All those years we spent in Chicago, I never believed Fraser when he talked about community. Like when he rented that terrible apartment and memorized his neighbors’ names _to create community_ , I thought he was deluding himself, like community was some kind of magic spell that would keep his neighbors from breaking into his (unlocked) apartment. Granted, I’ve seen Fraser work some mojo over the years — like saving that terrible apartment building — but I didn’t really get it. He’d go on and on about _community_ , and all I could hear was _hocus-pocus_.

Up here, though, I get it. Took me a little while — Kowalski got it before I did. I guess he’s smarter than he looks. Sometimes.

 _Community_ means you know Georgette’s pregnant even though she’s not showing yet, so you bring her extra firewood because you also know she’s too proud to ask. It means you know Stu’s going to drink on Christmas because his wife passed away ten years ago to the day, so you stop him on the street three blocks from the bar and tell him you made too much, he’d be doing you a favor to come over for dinner. It means you know who everybody’s kids are, so when you see a pick-up swerving on the highway you don’t use the siren, but you pull them over and call their parents before you do anything else.

See, what I had to figure out was that _community_ just means _family_. But it’s a family you choose, not one you’re born into, and you know not to take it for granted.

It means looking at Fraser and Kowalski smiling at you over the embers of a dying fire at the end of the day and knowing that you’re safe, that you’re loved, that you belong.


End file.
